Broader contextualization

Life and music career of Maluma, Reykon, Karol G and J Balvin (case studies relating to my project)

As part of my case studies, I am going to analyse these documentaries about four of my favourite Latin artists who have been through transitions and transformations that have made them who they are today.

The reason for choosing them is because in each of them I reflect myself in a different way which I am going to explain right now and also because it is part of my project in the way as I am trying to become from Juan to Jayffo:

1) let's start with Maluma. He is a Colombian singer who made his music career based on his family and their support. Since he was a kid he used to sing karaoke's at his family's parties and celebrations and since then his family started to support his talent. However, His focus was more for being a Football player which definitely was his passion too.

At his age of 15-16 years old, he decided to leave the football team and to start his music career as a solo artist recording his first song 'Farandulera' which was his first door into radio stations and Tv. In that way, he gained interviews and he started to be contacted at 15's birthday parties which are most celebrated birthday at the age of 15 for women in Colombia. After, he was known a wished by some many people in Medellin - Colombia where he is from.

Particularly, I identify me with him in this project, because during my process of making music through these weeks,  I have been performing outside college at weekends and I have been going to interviews at online programmes of entertainment as 'Juntos Tv' which is a Latin channel in London where I was invited with my friend C-Bry to perform our music and also to talk about ourselves. And also, because his life is been almost as tough as mine and his determination to be who he is right now is the same desire that I have to be as successful as him for being unique.

The life of Maluma in this documentary is shown as a process of faith and tough desitions which at the point of my life are very reflected in deciding if continuing studying after college or starting to push my music career at the 100% by putting all my dedication to my music and promoting myself to get known.

The title of his documentary is 'What I was, What I am, What I am going to be', it clearly shows step by step his way to be successful. I feel like I am taking the same steps, despite that the only family that I have here is my mom and my best friend, even if my uncle and my grandparents support me from Colombia and Spain.

This is a dream that has not a way back, I have decided to move with this dreams and that is why I have chosen to take this project as a transition from being Juan to become Jayffo.

2) I am going to talk about Reykon, a reggaeton singer who incredibly emerged from very tough poverty and limitations.

Reykon is an artist who has supported very hard hits that have made him who he is nowadays. Also, the fact of working in a different kind of tough jobs such as being removals staff, locksmith, golfers assistant and cleaner at his age of 14-15 years old to help his family to bring food at home.

The main characteristic that makes me identify with him is that I used to be a barber in Colombia, the same as him. And the funniest thing is to know that he learned to cut his friend's hair that same as me. The desire of superation and they want to progress helped him so much to start thinking about becoming something more than an employee of others or a barber.

However, to be a barber was a benefit to know J balvin who at that time was a beginner in the music industry and the producers that currently are his producers too. Most of the top guys that today are successful in the music industry were known each other at the beginning of their way in this music world which is very positive because most of them helped each other to bring themselves to the top of the streams.

The same as Maluma, Reykon's family were his support during his growth on his career.  But,  even he has made so many mistakes in his life given to his success on his career which made him to buy guns and to treat badly the people, but thanks to that mistakes he became a better person. It is understandable that at his adolescence he had to be an adult but also having contracts of two and three million dollars for singing two or three songs in a concert made him one of the best paid Latin artist.

I totally feel that I have had similar facts in my life as same as him and I think that my personality is quite similar to his because the reality that most of the people live in Colombia is very tough and it makes that not only him, a lot of Colombian artists keep the desire for becoming very successful without giving up the dreams.

3) Now, I want to talk about the great woman Latin artist/Singer Karol G. She is one of the most highlighting Latin singer/composer and artist in the global level of the music industry. I really identify myself with this girl because she has had so much rejection from so many companies who used to discriminate her for being a woman with want of standing out in the Latin urban genre. Also, the way as so many investors tried to take advantage of her need to try to abuse her and offering her success by the exchange of sexual purposes.

Reggaeton has been known for being a genre more influenced by men than women, so the rejection of women singers of reggaeton was very wide. Even the phrase 'No women in the reggaeton' was very aggressive before she was famous.

Today, she is known as the warrior of the urban genre, because she has broken some many stereotypes of the men power over this genre in the industry. However, she worked out how to get into this industry after so many rejections as a way of fighting against the ignorance from part of many record labels.

Karol G says 'The music business is something that really can destroy a person's life', ' This is a career where you have to have a very strong personality to be able to endure it', 'More than to keep my own life is to have happy/entertained the other people'. These statements are really true because this is a world and a place where to accept something unknown is very difficult, but once people know you they reflect against it.

In my process of becoming an artist, I have had to live very awesome, happy and comforting moments where I really felt the sensation of being an artist and to have the need of moving forward with this project. But also, I have had really bad experiences where people just ignore me on the stage or they just give their back while I was singing. So, this is a music world that you have to be aware of so many good and bad things that can destroy your self-esteem.

4) J Balvin the last favourite artist to talk about because he is just one of the biggest artist at the global level of the music industry. Even he is recognised as the top of the wanted artist on Youtube.

"I believe in God, I believe in the universe. But, come on, he is so busy like, "Yo God, send me a grammy". "You wanna get a Grammy, well, go and work hard to get it.", "I do believe in miracles, but you gotta make them", "You gotta get your shit together, keep working hard and then the Grammy will come.", "You run, You'll be fit" "You eat, you'll be fat", "I am not a magician, it's cause and effect".

All these statements about J Balvin's documentary are the most important words in this material. The reason for highlighting these words is because they are the real power of the human brain to be successful. I really admire the way as he is now one of the most famous, wanted and successful Latin artist globally recognised.

My focus on this artist is the analysis of his faith through the way as he acts successfully as if he were who he is noways. He talks as the human being he is and not as the superstar as he is known. The humility that he brings on himself wherever he goes is priceless. Recently I had the pleasure of being invited to one of his concerts in London at East Croydon, which concert was incredible and I was in a VIP zone where I had the chance of having him face to face and enjoying his performance in a very sensitive way. 

I felt that if I could be really close to him physically, one day I can work with him in the music industry. I know that I have the talent and all that I need to be successful, but I just need more of what he has, which the faith and working harder to achieve the success that I merit to live. 

Also, I identify with him because he has lived things where he has been in risk of death such as the aeroplane accident where he did not even break any of his parts or suffered any damage as if that were a miracle. moreover, the fact that he has lived the deep depression and the want for dying.

In the past I had a motorbike accident where I almost die and also, I lived cases of people who tried to kill with guns by a wrong confusion that they had looking for the wrong guy who was physically similar to me on the streets of Colombia and I was very close to dying that day. In so many cases, it has not been my day for dying, and it has helped me to appreciate more my life and the chance that I have for being alive.


BUT THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT J BALVIN'S SUCCESS THAT HAS  MADE HIM THE LATIN UNIQUE MAINSTREAM: He has broken the limits of the language, today a lot of people listen to his music even if they do not know what he says they just know the lyrics of his songs and they feel the vibe.

His Album 'Vibes' was named for this reason, because he wanted to break the limitations of the language Spanish to make it a real mainstream globally and to make those people feel the Latin vibe which was very smartly thought.

For as a Latin student of music performance at Westminster Kingsway College, it has never been an issue to always interpret my music in Spanish, It always has been a pleasure to do it in my performances and even they way as my tutors analyse my content to help me to improve they just feel the vibe of my music and help me to get better quality of sound without discriminating my language and even if they do not know what I am saying, they kindly support me.

The reason for focusing these four artist's life and music career with my project is because all of them have a particular reason for being as successful as they are today. the reason is that all of them have been destroyed somehow in their lives and that destruction made them new, they became what they had a desire for. I am following their steps and I am not just coming to this college to study music performance for having a diploma and growing my academic background. I am here to become the artist that I want to become and during these two years, I really think that the process of reborn and to believe in myself has started.

All these documentaries show the amazing world that they live now, despite their limitations and frustrations, but now they live this life as a gift, as a reward for so much behind it. I really focus my mind in their story because they one day were who I am now, and I am now who is going to be like them one day. I know that for academic material, this is more like personal statements, but this project has helped me to push Juan to become Jayffo, and to believe in my skills and that I really can start to fight for a place in the successful world of the music industry for being authentic, eclectic and genre fluid as my tutors discovered that I was through my time in the college.

One day I just want to be one of them and being a legend who inspires people to follow their dreams, I just have to be alive to accomplish it.

The reaction of people against my music and performances:

Since I decided to show my college's friends and classmates my music, most of them really liked and motivated me to sing it in live performances. As I can see while I was watching this video is that I was really uncomfortable in the stage and I was really shy. This is a video from my Harrison gig which was one task of the project from this year. 

I was analysing that at that time I had not decided yet to be Jayffo at all, I had just discovered my name which was a product of research with my name and my date of birth, but my classmates helped me to find the name literally. I used to say that I should be called 'J4',  But in the British accent, it sounds more like Jayffo than J-Four. So, since that idea came to my mind, the name identifies me and I like too. I started to look for more 'Jayffo' in Social media and I did not find anyone that at least were an artist or recognised singer, so I started to publish my music at online platform since then with the artistic name Jayffo. Today most of my family and friends call me Jayffo and It has been becoming my everyday identify.

Today, I just wake up and I feel more proudly like Jayffo than Juan and that is a fact that makes me feel more comfortable on the stage now. In the next video, I am going to show my most recent live performance in the event 'Reggaeton Live' organised by one of my close friends 'Guerrero music' who is also the owner of the company 'London reggaeton' that takes control of most the big Latin concert promotions in London.  Reggaeton Live is an event which target is to offer entertainment, fun and the opportunity for beginners artists who want to be known and who want to get the chance for performing. It is the exchange of benefits between the artist and the promoter which is that the artist offers entertainment and growth to the event to become bigger and the artist get more experience, reputation, popularity and recognition through the audience and the social media content that is produced there (videos, photos and promotion in the live performance).

This is the flyer of the promotion of my performance which was sponsored by me on Instagram. As you can see more artist apart from 'Jayffo' who is me, there was more artist performing that night.

Once I have got the chance for being part of the staff of this event at the door helping with the scan of the digital tickets and recollection of money of the people who were buying the tickets at the entrance. I also could start to sing in the event as one the artist, that felt really well because I was starting to be part of something and I was also starting to get the experience of how to be an artist feels like.

That night I honestly did not feel like the biggest thing ever, but I actually really felt that my dreams are becoming true. The chance of sharing my music and performing in the company of my mother, friends and unknown people as the audience who were enjoying my show was very comforting and motivating.

These are the videos of my performance at the Reggaeton's live event where the people were really engaged with my songs and also they dancing to it,  another people just filming to post in social media and another people just listening to me. I really felt the respect from the people and also after the show when a lot of people came to me saying that I was good and that I did it very well. The next day checking my social media, my followers were increasing and my post was seen wider.

I bring this to a broader contextualisation because I want the reaction of the people in front of me can be seen. I am not lying about this experience, It has been a fact. I am surprised because I do not have that much faith on myself, but that is the trick, to have not only faith on myself, it is also about creating my own opportunities as I have got it to sing in this event by my own will and collaboration, always humble and positive.

My project of becoming from a student to an artist is something that so many music students do, however I relate my studies in the life of Maluma, Reykon, J Balvin and Karol G with my experience at the reggaeton's live performance to show that when you start to take small steps and you have a reference like them to show you that you really can do things, you have the power for becoming however you want to be, and to accepted even if you are just a student that you have so much to learn a way long ahead. However, you decide when to start taking these steps to build your own way to your dreams.